Gambit's Terms
by RemedyChill
Summary: Gambit risks the universe itself on a quest to know himself better.
1. Gambit's Terms p1

I do not own the X-Men. This story is not for Profit. Go Gambit. It's your birthday.  
  
Gambit's Terms  
  
Scott Summers sat sipping his coffee. A small smile played about his lips as he eyed the package on the table before him.  
  
He thought of Gambit's face when he saw it.  
  
He holidays had been hard on the X-Men. Half a million lunatics had been writing Fan Fiction this year and it had kept them all pretty busy.  
  
Gambit had been hit extra hard. Everyone wanted him for something this season. Some wanted the penitent Gambit. Others wanted the happy-go-lucky snowball-throwing Gambit.  
  
And on Christmas morning, when most of the X-Men we're just getting up to find their presents under the tree, Gambit was just getting home. He wore two days growth of beard, and an elf costume. With green pointy shoes that curled up at the ends. A little gold and green elf jacket, an adorable little green hat with white pompom, and a pair of short shorts that made the whole ensemble look like laderhosen (sp).  
  
It had been a rough night for the Cajun who for some reason came home smelling like goats.  
  
"No more!" Gambit had shouted as went up the stairs. "Not never and not no ways!" He insisted as everyone snickered and laughed. "Not less it's on Gambit's terms!"  
  
Of course then his little green hat fell off and when he bent over to pick it up: RIIIIIP!  
  
And he went a nice Christmas shade of red as the whole mansion fell in to Christmas hysterics.  
  
Scott Summers smiled at the memory. And now there sat a new script. Wrapped in the plain brown paper that Fan Fiction Scripts arrive in and addressed to Gambit.  
  
"We'll see." Scott thought internally.  
  
You see, once upon a time Scott had had enough too. Scott tried to fight the power of the Fic himself. And now he knew. It was just too powerful. Too necessary. Because something surely drove those people to write them. Someone packaged them and sent them here. And once one arrives, you've really no choice, until the last page falls closed; They have you. To attempt to rebel against the script only results in one thing: Being badly written. And really, any X-Man can save the world or stop Magneto, but even Storm cant hold back the seasons. Or the sunrise. No X-Man can. It's just the order of things.  
  
Sounds were stirring down the hall. Scott wondered who it would be. Who would get to share the joke next? Would it be Remy? Would he get to tell him to dress warm? Scott smiled. This was really good coffee.  
  
A pair of bare feet padded in to the bathroom down the hall. Scott couldn't see who it was but he knew it wasn't Gambit. Gambit never made that much noise when he walked. A moment later the toilet flushed, the door opened and the light clicked off.  
  
Just a moment later Storm rounded the corner. "Morning Scott." She said, pulling her already laced robe closed for just a second before realizing that it was fine the way it was, and letting it go.  
  
Scott showed her his smile and then the package. Storm broke in to a wicked grin.  
  
"Scott Summers! You are terrible!" She began as Scott chuckled. "Now I see why Wolverine's so horrible with you! You deserve it." But she had to laugh, and upon joining him for coffee she discovered that there was no where else she would rather spend her morning.  
  
"It's a decent size." Storm eyed the package. "I wonder what it's about."  
  
"Return to The North Pole" Scott offered.  
  
Storm slapped him playfully. "Behave." She eyed him for a moment. "Besides. I like Fan Fiction. We get to do lots of things we normally wouldn't have gotten to do."  
  
Scott looked on the verge of comment but refrained.  
  
"That's why you're in charge." Storm thought, seeing him back down.  
  
"I like some of it. While I'm doing it mostly. I forget a lot too. Like dreams." Scott hadn't really ever told anyone about his Fan Fiction experiences.  
  
"When you remember them like they were dreams it's because you were not the main character." Storm explained "Supporting charectors don't need to be present to appear in fanfic. They're more like computer desktop shortcuts than the main file." Storm sipped her coffee. "That's why we remember them so vaguely. We were barely there."  
  
Storm smiled "I like to piece all those bits together and catch sight of the story. It's almost always something pretty creative."  
  
Scott seemed momentarily lost in thought as he tried despretly to recall if he had ever in fact been the lead in a piece of fanfic.  
  
"A good writer can really take you places." Jubilee volunteered as she shuffled sleepily down the hall in her over sized nightshirt. "Morning 'Ro. One Eye." Then she spotted the package "Who's off to play the star?" She asked, heading for the orange juice.  
  
"Everyone's favorite elf." Storm eyed her for her response.  
  
"Oh, mister No-More!" She asked. "This will be good."  
  
Scott pushed out another seat with his foot. She eased in with the pitcher of orange juice and a glass and left the refrigerator door open. Scott couldn't help himself. He stared at it until it closed naturally.  
  
"Oh, man." Jubilee looked halfway nervous as she eyes the package. "I know who wrote this."  
  
Scott smiled. She must be playing with them. No one understands Fan Fic. No one knows who the author is. That's absurd.  
  
"Oh really, how's that?" He asked just looking to prove her wrong.  
  
"You see these numbers, stamped on in the postmark?" She held up the package and pointed to a thin red line, that under closer examination was in fact a string of numbers. "These last numbers are like an author ID code. I recognize this one. I hope I'm not in it."  
  
"Who is he?" Cyclops was suddenly incredibly interested in the package and the markings.  
  
"He wrote that story 'Yesterday'." Jubilee said "The one where I got shot in the stomach? Everyone else had their memories wiped but me and the professor?"  
  
They both looked at her blankly.  
  
"Oh, right, um." She considered for a moment "Oh, right, 'Ro, remember when you and Logan went to that other world? The Rapier-Ransom Story?" She guessed.  
  
"The Repin-Raikov Project." Scott was all ears now. "I was in that one."  
  
"No you were not." Storm told him.  
  
"I was too. We just didn't run in to each other. While you were off playing in the woods I was off being mentally tormented." Scott informed her in no uncertain terms.  
  
"Oh." She recoiled. She had rather liked that story. "Why didn't you like him Jubilee?"  
  
"Well, really, I can't say he's all bad." She hesitated. "I don't like getting shot."  
  
"When were you shot?" Cyclops interrupted.  
  
"Before everyone else's memories were erased!" She told him again but he just stared at her.  
  
She continued. "And in one of his stories - Alone - He stranded me in Bishops future, tattooed that big 'm' on my eye, mutated it temporally in to Onslaught's future, and killed off all the people, and left me alone for like a year."  
  
Scott eyed her with a new respect. "Damn." He said almost uncharacteristically.  
  
"But I did kinda read ahead some, and the rest of the story is pretty cool. I get to live on a space station." She nodded her head thoroughly.  
  
"Maybe we should wake Gambit up. This might be something he needs to prepare for." Scott's leadership skills had kicked in full steam.  
  
"Or maybe he needs his rest." Storm lay a comforting hand on Scott's shoulder and eased him back in to his seat.  
  
"This is what bites about Fan Fic." Scott said. "You never know if it's elves or evils."  
  
"Well, based on who this author is, I'd have to say it's bound to be interesting." Storm commented, remembering that kiss she shared with Logan in the woods.  
  
"I suppose he hasn't killed any of us." Scott commented.  
  
Jubilee was livid. "I've seen him kill us. He just mowed us down in Yesterday. I remember being shot real well."  
  
"You were shot?" Storm looked horrified at the suggestion.  
  
"Aaaaarrrrgggegggeeeee!!!" Jubilee screeched in anger and stomped down the hall.  
  
"What with her?" Scott asked Storm.  
  
"You were here. You tell me." She shrugged.  
  
Scott finished his coffee. "I am either going to open it myself or go wake him up." Scott decided out loud.  
  
Storm eyed the package. Finally, when she could stand it no longer, she opened it.  
  
"NO!" She gasped but her breath was lost. Suddenly it was al though the world had slid sideways and pinned her beneath it. He claustrophobia was alive and kicking under the weight of the realization. She became rooted with fear and all feeling spiraled away from her body and down in to the earth.  
  
"Storm!" Scott was alive with concern as he tried to steady her/ "What is it?" He breathed just barely.  
  
She turned the script to face him.  
  
The title read "Gambit's Terms."  
  
And Scott too felt the blow. It was devastating and heretical. It went contrary to every doctrine imaginable. But the truth dawned on Scott Summers. He could hear Gambit's words again.  
  
"No more! Not never and not no ways! Not less it's on Gambit's terms!"  
  
Somehow, in some way, Gambit had managed to contact an author. And there was just no telling where this might lead. Perhaps there was no stopping him now.  
  
"Heaven help us." He breathed. "Heaven help us all." But he was afraid it wasn't heaven that was listening. 


	2. Gambit's Terms p2

Scott Summers had never been one for running through the mansion. Too many antiques. Too many fine rugs. And often, quite often, too many people. Today however he made his exceptions. He tore through the hallway and skidded across the fine carpet to halt in front of Gambit's room. HE breathed twice before he opened the door.  
  
Bad things can happen if you wake an X-Man wrong.  
  
Scott turned the knob slowly and leaned in. But he abandoned all attempts at sanity when he opened the door. Slowly he closed it again so as not to disturb the icy silence. Jubilee had heard his mad dash through the house and come in pursuit.  
  
She saw the vacant look on Cyclops face and pushed past him. He didn't try to stop her. She opened the door and peered inside.  
  
"Ahhh, Cyke?" She asked hesitantly  
  
"I know. How did we not hear that happen?" Scott grimaced. "Because it wasn't in the script."  
  
"So it's already begun? Without Gambit getting to even look at his script? That's so not fair!" Jubilee was outraged.  
  
"Unless it's Gambit's script." Scott countered. "But how could it be?" It looked as thought the whole room was burnt and blackened.  
  
"Gambit's script?" Jubilee was confused.  
  
"Come see." He told her.  
  
Back in the kitchen Storm had recovered from her shock and opened the script as well as a bag of oreo's.  
  
Scott and Jubilee joined her.  
  
"Gambit's room" Scott began but Storm interrupted.  
  
"Looked as thought the whole room was burnt and blackened." She read it verbatim off the script.  
  
"Oh, yeah." Scott eyed the script as his words "Ooh, yeah." Appeared on the page. The script would now fill in as the fanfic was acted out. If only there was some way to see what was happening. If only they knew that Gambit was safe.  
  
"Storm" Cyclops began, only to discover that he was alone in the room. Storm and Jubilee were quietly chatting down the hall. "Storm?" He called after them.  
  
"Right, Scott." She said coming up on him from behind. "Jubilee and I tried to find the Professor. We thought he should know if Gambit's really contacted an author." It sounded reasonable to Scott.  
  
"What did he say?" Scott asked, crossing his arms authoritatively.  
  
"We can't find him." Storm continued.  
  
"Or the front door." Jubilee sighed.  
  
"The front door?" Cyclops considered this comment.  
  
"Ah, yes." Storm hated delivering news like this. "I suspect it's a catch all phrase." She grimaced. "Something like 'And the X-Men were powerless to interfere." She saw the expression shift on Cyclops face. He didn't like this a bit. "Or something like that." She concluded.  
  
"Wonderful." Cyclops shook his head.  
  
Meanwhile, in a concealing darkness in a foreign land, Remy LeBeau looked up on to a scene from his distant past. Because once upon a time Remy LeBeau had failed to stop events he had set in motion. On this very night, in the past, the team that he had assembled had massacred the Morlock population in those tunnels right in front of him.  
  
Gambit knew he had very little time. Soon the death squad would arrive. And then, shortly after, he too would come, too late to do more than save one life.  
  
He hesitated no longer. He moved quickly and quietly over the landscape and up in to the darkness of the tunnels. Even his unbelievably quiet steps echoed in the vast concrete underground. And soon enough he came to find what he was looking for.  
  
It was a shiny metal handle that looked wholly out of place in the abandoned tunnel system. It stood almost four feet tall and rose out of the floor.  
  
"Not too subtle, eh?" He asked out loud to the sky above him.  
  
He reached out and hesitated. He could still go back. He hadn't interfered up until now. But once he did, the entire marvelous continuum could be destroyed. He looked down the tunnel toward the Morlock encampment. He never had a choice. From the moment he arrives here later tonight, he was destined to return to now to change it.  
  
He grabbed the switch and pulled it hard toward him. A great click sounded as it halted its momentum.  
  
"Dat it?" Gambit wondered as he looked around. Nothing felt different.  
  
He padded back down the tunnel. In the distance he could see the approaching murderers intent on wiping out the Morlocks. Fear washed over Gambit. What if it didn't work? What if this author he had found just makes him live through it all over again. He felt numb and ill.  
  
The voices were approaching. But something was different. This wasn't the extermination team he had hired. Who were these people?  
  
"Are you Remy LeBeau?" The white-haired woman asked.  
  
"I'h 'am" Remy nodded "You da one dey call Storm?" The words rolled out of his mouth before he knew he had said them.  
  
"Indeed." She nodded. "Your information was correct. There was a conspiracy to wipe out the Morlocks." She looked demure. "I extend their thanks to you for bringing this matter to my attention."  
  
"It was about time I made some new friends." Gambit smiled. "I couldn't relate no more."  
  
"Well you made some today Bub." A rough little man reached in and pumped Remy's hand.  
  
"Glad I could help." He smiled. And he meant it.  
  
And as Gambit narrowly averted his own damnation, the marvel universe began to come apart at the seams.  
  
"Did I just read that right?" Jubilee asked Storm.  
  
"I think so. It says the whole universe began coming apart a the seams." Storm read it aloud.  
  
"I told you this author couldn't be trusted." Jubilee commented. "Just up and unraveled the universe, didn't he?"  
  
Scott was unsure. He looked around. The mansion seemed unchanged.  
  
"Jubilee." He asked "How did you find out about the authors id numbers on the postmark?"  
  
"Some story on Fanfiction.net" She said. "Why?"  
  
"I want to know everything I can about our author. I know we have lawyers in that other dimention. Maybe we can get this stopped." At the very least, Scott mused, I can read his other stuff and see if he's the decent sort who will put a universe back properly when he's done with it.  
  
"Pretty please?" Scott said out loud.  
  
"What?" Jubilee asked.  
  
"Nothing." He gestured toward the computer and off she went. 


	3. Gambit's Terms p3

Gambit's life swirled around him. Soon he had ingratiated himself with the X-Men. He had fallen for his fellow hero, Rogue. And Gambit knew of this alternate world only what had transpired within it until one day as he turned the corner by his room, on his way to bed.  
  
"Eh?" Remy thought. "Was' dis?" He paused to consider the answer.  
  
Sure enough it was a bright metal handle. Similar to the throttle on a train. Something had nagged at him. Had he seen one before?  
  
It obviously didn't belong sticking out of the floor in front of Rogue's room. A person couldn't even walk in without pulling it back and out of the way.  
  
That same something nagged again. What was it?  
  
He placed his hand on the handle and the memories returned in a flash. The Morlocks. The Tunnels. All changed. All fixed. The Author. Sitting over all of it.  
  
Gambit broke in to a cold sweat. He focused all his reserves in to pulling the throttle back and out of the way of the door.  
  
Suddenly the door flew open and drew Remy's attention. He glanced back and the handle was gone. Just as quickly the memory or it was fleeing and as he turned to face Rogue, he forgot his other life entirely.  
  
"Remy!" Her eyes were bright and alive. Her hair fell in a sort array about her face and she spoke like an angel. "Ah did it Remy. Look. I'm doing it!"  
  
And she held up a baby squirrel that had fallen in to her window.  
  
"But Chere'? How?" Remy stared at the baby squirrel as it moved about in her hands, it's skin to hers.  
  
"Well, Ah thought I had better scoop em quick and put him down." She paused. "And I thought 'Because I don't want to absorb a squirrel.' And I was a gonna laugh about it." She looked thoughtful as though looking for the right words "And ah could FEEL it. Like my skin was tightenin' and like electricity was flowing through me, real slow." She looked at him. "At the same time."  
  
He nodded.  
  
"And when I couldn't put him down in time." She looked wonderfully alive. "Nothin' happened!" She was thrilled.  
  
"Put down the pet Cherie." Gambit stepped in close to her. "Gambit need to see this work for he' self."  
  
She let the squirrel fall in to an open drawer of laundry and turned like a schoolgirl to face him.  
  
He ran his index finger hesitantly over her lips and down over her chin. Nothing happened. He let his fingers slide behind her neck in to the soft curls of hair. And noting happened.  
  
He led her in close to him and felt her warm hand touch his face and neck. And still nothing happened.  
  
And their lips met. Softly and timidly on both sides at first and then Rogue fell in to the embrace and Gambit guided her gently back, in to her room, and closed the door behind them, almost absently, with his foot.  
  
"Awww!" Jubilee said just a touch too loudly over Cyclops shoulder.  
  
"Awww. Nothing." He said. "It's practically pornographic." He thought for a moment. "You're lucky you're seeing it at all." He told her.  
  
"Whatever Cyke." She rolled her eyes. " I'm old enough to risk my life for mutant kind but not old enough for some closed door activities."  
  
"Just what do you know about 'Closed Doors'?" Scott asked. Before hastily adding "Never mind. Forget I said anything." And throwing up his hands in frustration.  
  
"I think it's sweet." Storm commented.  
  
"You would." Scott turned away.  
  
"Well, Scott Summers. YOU'RE POUTING!" Storm said out loud.  
  
"I am not!" He countered. "I'm brooding." He corrected. "It's all fun and games until everyone looses a universe!"  
  
Storm wanted to laugh but she held back. Instead she simply smiled. "I think it's good for Rogue."  
  
And although he wanted to argue, he saw no point. "So I guess we should just thank God for small favors." He grimaced. "Or the author."  
  
"Or we could thank Gambit since he started it all." Jubilee thought out loud.  
  
"So now I should THANK HIM? For disappearing to do The Author knows what with Rogue? I should THANK HIM now?" He couldn't she'd said that.  
  
"I'd thank a guy if he did it right." Jubilee nodded to Storm who laughed despite herself. "'Specially if it was, you know, necessary?"  
  
And Cyclops did not want to know. Not at all.  
  
"Did you find anything on the computer?" He asked her.  
  
"Way to change the subject fearless leader." Jubilee smiled at him across her hot chocolate. "I left it on the screen."  
  
"Does our guy have a name?" Scott asked out loud.  
  
"Sure does." Storm told him "It's Remedy=Chill." She told him. "With an equals sign in the middle."  
  
"Cute." Cyke told her as he began to read the online biography. 


	4. Gambit's Terms p4

"Go, go, go!" Gambit shouted, as he slid towards Scott Summers. Scott dived forward for the trench. Remy slid in and landed almost unceremoniously on top of him.  
  
Remy dropped down to the bottom of the trench and looked at his friend. Both were covering their ears and smiling profusely.  
  
The explosion was spectacular.  
  
It echoed through the caverns below with such force that it shook the ground and vibrated any part of you that touched the earth.  
  
Inside the caverns you could hear level after level of the underground complex as it fell in on itself.  
  
And then the flames came in shades of orange, purple and red. They shot up the escape tunnels with a roar like that of water and they spit themselves across the night sky in all directions. Including across the top of the trench our hero's were hiding in.  
  
A moment later, when the flames receded, both sat up. They were smoldering and covered in a layer of soot and ash that had swept in to the trench.  
  
"Marie, she is a gonn-a kill Gambit." Remy told Scott.  
  
"Why?" Scott knew that Rogue knew where they were, what they were doing. How could Remy be in trouble for this?  
  
"I don tol her I quit smokin' for new years!" Gambit splashed a handful of ash at his friend's face.  
  
Scott shook his head at the horrible joke and helped his team mate to his feet.  
  
"You know I'm going to miss you G." Scott told him. "But you're the best man for the job."  
  
"I hope so. 'ome time's Gambit get to wondering." He looked Scott right in the eye. "So you tells me once, so's I's can believe's it." He fixed his stare right in Scott's ruby quartz lenses and focused on the eyes behind them. "Am I ready to lead a team?"  
  
"Gambit." He took him by the shoulders "Remy. The Gold team is lucky to get you. And yes, you deserve it more than Storm. And she's good with it Remy. She's seen what we've all seen since you became a father. What I saw in you when I recommended that Xavier promote you. That you're ready, capable and dedicated."  
  
Then Scott smiled "I can't lie any better than that." He broke in to a wicked grin.  
  
"You can' lie at all Summers." Gambit grinned back.  
  
"You tink we don 'ere now?" Gambit looked at the smoking ruins of Mr. Sinister's last laboratory.  
  
"Looks pretty blown up to me." Scott decided. "You know, with Sinister in custody now, I didn't really realize how much stress I was under."  
  
"Till it was gone hunh?" Gambit smiled. "I just glad you didn't keep he all to you self. I can see where dis all might have been personal."  
  
"Always room for a friend." Scott smiled. "But really, I think you hate him more than I do. Although I cant seem to guess why."  
  
"Gambit don know either. Not really. Somtin' about that man jus' don sit right with Gambit." He nodded, feeling the discomfort but not knowing it's cause.  
  
"So how old is André going to be when Rogue delivers again?" Scott hadn't done the math.  
  
"Almos' three." He smirked "Gives Gambit six month's to go underground and disappear."  
  
"You're horrible LeBeau!"  
  
Gambit laughed at him.  
  
"You know, I'm going to ask Jean to marry me." Scott was smiling slyly.  
  
"No? For real?" Gambit was astonished. "Wen dis happen?"  
  
"I've been thinking about it." Scott smiled "You're the first one I've told."  
  
"You can jus' relax now Slim, because 'Bachelor-Party-Gambit' has arrived!" He tore loose one of his most dashing smiles.  
  
"Why did I suddenly fear for my relationship when you said that?" Scott joked.  
  
"Jus' a-member dis, DENY AVERYTIN'!" Gambit made a wide gesture to include everything in his view. "See dat dere tree?"  
  
"Yeah." Scott told him.  
  
"No." He said quickly. "No you don!." He smiled. "You say 'What Tree?'"  
  
"What tree?"  
  
"Better." Gambit looked around as they walked. "Where we park the plane?"  
  
"What Plane?"  
  
Gambit shook his head. Scott Summers could really be a piece of work sometimes.  
  
(Meanwhile back in the Mansion)  
  
"What does he mean I can be a piece of work sometimes?" Scott sat bolt upright and looked to Storm and then Jubilee. Both were engrossed in studying the minute details of the floor and avoiding his gaze. "Oh, man." Scott realized. "I am a piece of work sometimes." He put his head down on the script in front of him.  
  
"It's not so bad Scott." Storm began rubbing his shoulders in apology for having agreed in the first place.  
  
"Sure. He used the word 'work' instead of what he was really thinking." Jubilee quipped from a safe distance. Scott just fell forward in mock exhaustion and let out a labored sigh.  
  
Just then Scott noticed more words forming along the script.  
  
"And Xavier wheels in to the room!" Scott read aloud as he turned toward the door.  
  
Sure enough there was Xavier. But something about him was a little off. Scott seemed not to notice.  
  
"Scott." Xavier prompted "What's happening?"  
  
"I think that the universe is unraveling sir." Scott began. "It's Gambit. He's contacted an author an now they've teamed up to rewrite our history."  
  
"I see." The Professor seemed unconcerned and uninterested.  
  
"Don't you think you should contact the others sir?" Scott began to notice that something was off about Xavier. His head seemed to float side to side and his features seemed rounded and cartoonish.  
  
"Oh, no." Xavier sighed. "I can't. I'm just a balloon." And he pulled a pin out of his pocket and popped himself with a terrible BANG!  
  
Scott whirled on the script as more words were appearing.  
  
"And the Author laughed and laughed and laughed."  
  
"He's." Scott searched for the right word "TOYING with me!" He had grabbed up the script with both hands and began yelling at it. "You won't get away with this. We have lawyers you know!"  
  
But the script didn't seem to be listening.  
  
"Oh, oh, did you see that?" Cyclops asked Storm and Jubilee "But the script didn't seem to be listening." He read mockingly aloud off the newly formed words.  
  
"Uh, Scott?" Jubilee spoke and tried not to stare.  
  
But Scott wasn't listening.  
  
"Uh, yes, Scott." Storm concluded, "Jubilee is right."  
  
"Right about what?" He suddenly tuned away from the script and followed their gazes.  
  
Then he jumped. He dropped the script and closed his robe tightly.  
  
"Don't you sleep in anything else?" Jubilee asked.  
  
"Yes!" He hissed. "I slept in something more last night."  
  
"Ahh." Jubilee understood. "Then I guess we should say nice things about the author instead of raving like lunatics, hunh Scott?" She was smiling, and it was slightly forced.  
  
Scott considered this. She was right. They couldn't stop the sunrise. But maybe they could find a shady spot somewhere.  
  
"You're right." He grasped several times for the belt of his robe only to find it missing. So he held it closed by hand and trekked to the computer. "I think it's time for a review." Scott said with some finality while Storm and Jubilee exchanged some worried glances. 


	5. Gambit's Terms p5

Gambit padded down the stairs and in to Xavier's study. He had suspected something was wrong for a long time now. Xavier was almost never at the main house anymore. But he was tonight.  
  
Gambit approached him out of the shadows.  
  
"Professor?" He ventured. But the icy glaze that was returned was not that of Charles Xavier. It was that of Onslaught.  
  
Remy reached out and touched the metal handle in an effort to walk around it. "What?" He felt the handle tingle when his skin touched it.  
  
"What are you doing there? What's in your hand?" Onslaught/Xavier demanded.  
  
And memories began to emerge. Memories of a future, a future that would breed Bishop and send him back to accuse Gambit of betraying the X-Men. He saw himself, the way it had really happened, with Onslaught trying to take posession of his body and powers. He saw onslaught's power merging with his and Onslaught's personality withering and dying under the irrepressible Cajun's dedication to Xavier's dream.  
  
Then he saw it again. That Onslaught was now forewarned of Gambit's survival, and Onslaught would not make the same mistake.  
  
Gambit saw the price. All of Earth's human hero's wiped clean off the map of creation.  
  
And Gambit knew what he had to do. He pulled the switch toward him and the scene shifted ever so slightly, and it was reborn.  
  
"I will have you!" The Onslaught roared as it projected itself in to Remy. "You shall be the furnace that nourishes me LeBeau."  
  
And Remy let it come. "I take you power." He told Onslaught. "And I take you soul." He whispered.  
  
And too late Onslaught saw what was coming. His very essence was flowing in to Gambit. The great mental energies that had assumed power over the mind of Charles Xavier were being channeled in to a living battery. Onslaughts pattern of energy, his self, could not exist in this kind of storage. It would become only energy devoid of conciousness.  
  
It tried to pull away, tried to fight, and in the end it even tried to appeal to Remy LeBeau.  
  
But Remy was already aware of the risks. How would the world be for his son, or his new baby daughter, if this didn't end right here and right now?  
  
Remy felt the power flowing in to him long after he could not stand. Long after he had fallen from his knees, and long after his heart had failed to beat.  
  
He felt the power ebb and trickle and die, and he was left with just one moment's peace. With the knowledge that he had won, and with that, in his last nanoseconds of life, he found himself wrapped and warm in memories of Rogue.  
  
"Gambit?" The professor came to his senses. "Oh, dear God, no." He whispered. But no alarm given and no shout called would bring Gambit back.  
  
A dark mist hung over the mansion the next day. And the sun refused to shine.  
  
"You see? You see what I mean?" Jubilee was pointing at the script and waving it for dramatic effect.  
  
"About what?" Scott asked, throwing away the eight copy of his review.  
  
"He's just killed Gambit!" She slid the script across the table so everyone could see. "I knew this guy was no good. I knew it since I got shot on the step." She gestured out toward where the front door used to be.  
  
"You were shot?" Cyclops looked her up and down in an effort to locate bullet holes.  
  
"When did this happen dear?" Storm ushered her to a seat and looked intently for wounds.  
  
Jubilee sighed. "Now he's toying with me." She realized out loud.  
  
Suddenly the computer beeped twice.  
  
"What's that mean?" Scott asked her.  
  
"It means he's got a new chapter up." She looked hesitant. "But he did just kill Gambit." She looked towards the script again. "Of course, I'm still here, even though I got shot."  
  
"You were shot?" Storm looked horrified and overprotective.  
  
"You were?" Scott asked, looking for blood "When?"  
  
Jubilee sighed again. "In this story that Remedy=Chill wrote called Yesterday. Before everyone but me and the professor got our memories erased." She was tired of saying it.  
  
And you could almost hear crickets in the icy silence that followed.  
  
"New Chapter?" She prompted them out of their daze.  
  
"Right!" Scott jumped up and selected the next chapter from the drop down menu. 


	6. Gambit's Terms p6

"Hunh?" Gambit sat up, looked around, and rubbed his head. "Where Gambit be?" A soft pink mist made it impossible to look more than a few feet. The mist seemed to be self-illuminating.  
  
"This is heaven." A voice answered.  
  
Gambit turned in the direction of the voice. "Remedy?" He called.  
  
"X-Man heaven anyway." The voice continued.  
  
"Rem?" He asked again, beginning to loose hope.  
  
"Yes Gambit, I'm here." The man stepped out of the mists. He wore small round glasses and his hair short around his face.  
  
"What's Gambit doin 'ere?" He became worried. "You say we could put it all back the way it belong."  
  
"No worries my friend" The author spoke in a tone smoother and more soothing than he was capable of in real life. "I just wanted you to see something." And the author pointed in to the distance beyond Gambit, making him turn yet again.  
  
There were several beings in the mists coming toward them.  
  
"Marie!" Gambit knew her at once and rushed forward to greet her. He threw his arms around her and pressed his face to hers. "I thought I'd never get to touch you again." He raised his head to see the other figures, as they became clear.  
  
"Kids!" He breathed, reaching wildly and pulling them to him. "I thought you would be gone now. De story, she' over." He explained.  
  
"No worries dad." His daughter smiled.  
  
"Your friend brought us here instead." His son smiled at him. "And we'll be waiting here when it's you time to come to us for real Dad."  
  
"Bu' Wha' about Marie?" He held her close. "When da real Rogue come to heaven?"  
  
"Ah'm a piece of her Remy." She smoothed the hair away from his forehead. "We'll come together like two drops of water." She tapped the end of his nose with her finger.  
  
"But you won' love me no more?" He looked crestfallen.  
  
"I'm the part of her that always loves you Remy." She smiled at him. Her last look at the man she loves. "And if nothing else, she'll know what you were willing to do, for me, for the kids, for everyone."  
  
Remy turned toward The Author again.  
  
"Gambit, he never ask fo' dis much." He looked imploringly. "Gambit jus' had to know."  
  
"Did you find out what you wanted to know?" The Author asked.  
  
Gambit nodded in thought for a minute before he visibly brightened. "Gambit did it!" He grinned wildly like a madman. He hadn't noticed when his family had vanished but he could feel the time growing late around them. "Gambit did it!" He called out to the vast reaches of heaven. "All on his own!" The noise refused to echo and just kept going.  
  
"Was it everything you wanted?" The Author asked.  
  
"Jus' a chance to see if I could a don it right. To live like a free man and see if I 'till a good one." He nodded again. "To see if Gambit's love be jus as good as anyones." He smiled grimly, as it was now over. "Ever'tin' I ask fo'." He agreed.  
  
"Now don't forget me." The Author told him.  
  
"No worries mon ami!" Gambit went to wave but instead sat bolt upright in bed. Echoing through his mind were the words "And no one remembered a bit of it except Gambit all the days of their lives."  
  
And as a result, the Marvel universe re-raveled itself quite nicely.  
  
He pulled on his robe to ward off the chill and started down the hall towards breakfast.  
  
"Mail for you Gambit." Scott was sitting at the table sipping his coffee. He gestured to the slim little brown Fan Fic package on the table. Gambit snatched it up and tore it open.  
  
Scott went to take a sip of his coffee.  
  
"Wha' time you all tink it be?" Gambit asked, poking his head around the edge of the one page story he was to star in.  
  
Scott turned his wrist, looked at his watch and spilled his coffee in to his lap.  
  
"Man!" Scott jumped up, sopping through his robe and his pajama bottoms.  
  
"Sorry Mon Ami, I don write 'em, I jus de 'tar" And Gambit handed him the paper which read:  
  
Gambit asks Scott for the time and Scott spills his drink on himself.  
  
"Was this one more to your liking then?" Scott asked, pulling napkins out of the cupboard.  
  
"A few more like dis and I quit de professional field entirely." Gambit smiled.  
  
"Whatever." Jubilee pushed past him, headed for the Orange juice.  
  
  
  
EPILOGUE:  
  
Gambit sat quietly in his room with his new laptop.  
  
He wrote:  
  
Remedy=Chill was sitting at his computer when suddenly all he became aware of a slight tingling in his forehead. He closed his eyes and could see the idea of mutancy in the human beings of his own world. It floated like a great jewel in his mind. It pulsed with swirling patterns of colored energy. Instinctively he knew that if he were to touch it, to raise his arm and bring his fingers to his forehead, then the idea would be free. It would tear around his world like a plasma fire until it was no longer the world he knew.  
  
He could make out the shape of his hand through his closed eyes. He saw it rise and reach. He felt his cool dry fingers touch his forehead and for a moment, nothing happened.  
  
Suddenly, he felt an electric current flowing between his fingers and the idea. His head threw itself back and the idea surged with an almost infinite power. Suddenly the idea broke free and like the beam of a great lighthouse it tore up in to the sky above his home.  
  
The idea fractured and splintered and broke away from itself, raining bits of sparkling and swirling colored energy down in to the minds of his fellow men and women across the planet. Of course this all happened on an astral level. No one noticed except Remedy.  
  
And when the idea was finished, and it had fully escaped in to this new world, Remedy too forgot all about it.  
  
And just a few months later we find him.  
  
His business had been doing well. He was buying a new house. His telepathic abilities were as strong as ever and he felt good.  
  
He stepped on the gas and felt the sleek little sports car lunge forward under his command.  
  
It had been months since the world's psychic abilities had reemerged en mass. All the telepaths and empaths began halting wars around the world because they couldn't handle the emotional and psychic backlash.  
  
Industry and innovation were flourishing. Everyone's new abilities gave us vast new resources and insights in to the world around us. Remedy could feel the world as it teetered on a great new age of discovery and exploration.  
  
Sure there was the occasional frightened person, still in denial about the truth, and the world, and the natural path of mutation.  
  
But none of that seemed to matter to Remedy at the moment. He stood up on the gas pedal so that he was looking above the small convertibles windshield, letting it sweep his hair away from his face.  
  
The last few months had been a blur. The operation that made his glasses a memory, the mad changes in the world that somehow he found to be of comfort. Had it all been just a metaphoric moment ago?  
  
And he almost absently turned on the radio. It was the Rolling Stones singing Sympathy for the Devil. He turned it up and sang as loudly and off key as he liked.  
  
"Pleased to meeeeeeeet you!" He howled out loud. "Hope you guess myyyyyy name!"  
  
And he sped of in to the distance into a strange new world, without a clue in sight, that he was also the cause.  
  
"But what's been puzzeling you, it's just the nature of my game. I mean it. Get down now."  
  
Suddenly Jubilee burst in to the room. "Gambit. Mails here. You've got fanfic." She tossed a few short stories on to his bed.  
  
"Tank's petite." He waved back.  
  
He hit upload and watched his story vanishing in to the great network beyond. A story that was being written in real time, not over the past. A story that need never be rewritten. A story that would exist as truth forever.  
  
"What'cha doin'? She asked.  
  
"Jus' upload da story to nonfiction.net." He told her. "Between de spell and grammar checkers, Gambit almos' speakin' English!"  
  
She smiled broadly. "So I guess you're in the alternate universe mood hunh?" She smirked. "The top ones called Return to the North Pole."  
  
He looked dead serious for a moment until he looked down at it himself. It was called simply "The Thief".  
  
"Jubilee." His tone was one of warning and a card sprang to his fingers, crackling with energy.  
  
She let off a mocking shriek and took off down the hall. 


End file.
